Megaluridae

Taxobox
name = Megaluridae


image_width = 220px
image_caption = Striated Grassbird, "Megalurus palustris"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Neornithes
infraclassis = Neognathae
superordo = Neoaves
ordo = Passeriformes
subordo = Passeri
infraordo = Passerida
superfamilia = Sylvioidea
familia = Megaluridae
familia_authority =
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = "Bradypterus"
"Cincloramphus"
"Locustella"
"Megalurus"
"Schoenicola"
and see text

Megaluridae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler "wastebin" family. It contains the grass-warblers, grassbirds, and the "Bradypterus" "bush-warblers". These birds occur mainly in Eurasia, Africa, and the Australian region. As common name, megalurid warblers is usually used.Alström "et al." (2006)]

The species are smallish birds with tails that are usually long and pointed; the scientific name of the type genus "Megalurus" in fact means "the large-tailed one" in plain English. They are less wren-like than the typical shrub-warblers ("Cettia") but like these drab brownish or buffy all over. They tend to be larger and slimmer than "Cettia" though, and many have bold dark streaks on wings and/or underside. Most live in scrubland and frequently hunt food by clambering through thick tangled growth or pursuing it on the ground; they are perhaps the most terrestrial of the "warblers". Very unusual for Passeriformes, beginning evolution towards flightlessness is seen in some taxa. [del Hoyo "et al." (2006)]

Among the "warbler and babbler" superfamily Sylvioidea, the Megaluridae are closest to the Malagasy warblers, another newly-recognized (and hitherto unnamed) family; the Black-capped Donacobius ("Donacobius atricapillus") is an American relative derived from the same ancestral stock and not a wren as was long believed.

Genera

* "Bradypterus" – Megalurid bush-warblers (more than 20 species; paraphyletic [At least one species - Victorin's Scrub-warbler - does not belong in the Megaluridae at all (Beresford "et al.", 2005).] )
* "Locustella" – grass-warblers (9 species)
* "Megalurus" – typical grassbirds (5 species; probably polyphyletic)
* "Schoenicola" – wide-tailed grassbirds (2 species; tentatively placed here)
* "Cincloramphus" – songlarks (2 species; tentatively placed here)

Several other (usually small or monotypic) genera are suspected to belong here too:
* "Bowdleria" – fernbirds (1 living species, 1 recently extinct; sometimes included in "Megalurus")
* "Buettikoferella" – Buff-banded Bushbird
* "Chaetornis" – Bristled Grassbird
* "Dromaeocercus" – emu-tails (2 species, includes "Amphilais")
* "Eremiornis" – Spinifex-bird
* "Megalurulus" – thicketbirds (5 species)

Footnotes

References

* (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. "Mol. Phylogenet. Evol." 38(2): 381–397. doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015 [http://www.nrm.se/download/18.4e1d3ca810c24ddc70380001143/Alström+et+al+Sylvioidea+MPEV+2006.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2005): African endemics span the tree of songbirds (Passeri): molecular systematics of several evolutionary 'enigmas'. "Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B" 272 (1565): 849–858. DOI|10.1098/rspb.2004.2997 [http://www.tc.umn.edu/~barke042/pdfs/Beresford.et.al05.pdf PDF fulltext] [http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/public/contributionsupplementalmaterials/h/y/b/7/hyb7fme16147k0d3/archive1.pdf Electronic appendix]
* (2006): "Handbook of Birds of the World" (Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 849655306X